Melanistic Tigers!!!!!!! and others

I wasn't sure if this had been posted before. I originally came across it on a forum called Carnivora. Black tigers have been filmed by a camera trap. Check out this video, pay particular attention to 1:45 - 1:50, which is where you can clearly see there are two, seemingly young, black tigers.

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

This is amazing!

Also, check out this Melanistic Serval. This thing will be stalking my nightmares haha:

[img][You must be registered and logged in to see this image.][/img]

I got this picture from The Retriever, Dog, and Wildlife Blog, here:

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

WOW !!!!

That is AMAZING ! I never heard about that before, neither in tigers nor servals
Thankyou very much for showing

Wow, thats really cool, that is the first time I have ever seen anything like this.
Thanks for showing.

I've seen black servals before on video... they exist.
The "black tiger" we see there is a regular one with heavy shadow on it.

Gabe wrote:

I've seen black servals before on video... they exist.
The "black tiger" we see there is a regular one with heavy shadow on it.

I wouldn't be so sure about that. A friend of mine suspected the same and went through it frame by frame to determine if it was a shadows, dirt, or some other easily explainable cause other than melanism. As yet, he, nor any of his friends, who are really good at video investigation (it's what they do for a living) have found this to be shadow-play. It begs the question: Why is the young tiger it runs up to also at least partially melanistic (abundism?), but none of the others, one of whom is right right behind the two "black" tigers, almost between them, nor are any of the others, who are not that far behind? Add to that, as the black tiger "overtakes" the other tiger, it's color remains consistent. At no time is there any change in the shading, coloration, ect. It shows faint striping on the tip of the tail as would be expected in melanistic cats.

Also, we should keep in mind that in 2008 black tigers were caught on a camera trap in Similipal National Park by the Wildlife Institute of India during their tiger census. Further, this video comes from China, where they are attempting to re-introduce Amur Tigers, and there is concern that the population has suffered tremendous inbreeding pressures. That may perpetuate melanism if it is in fact there.